In various segments of our economy, it is often desirable to have the ability to quickly and accurately count large quantities of coins having various denominations. For example, in the vending industry large quantities of coins having various denominations are often collected at different locations. As a result, it is often desirable to count and totalize the various denominations of coins collected from each vending location as well as retaining a cumulative count and total from selected or all locations.
Since it is burdensome to transport large quantities of coins if they are not properly packaged or wrapped, it is desirable to package each denomination of coin in wrappers or bags while the coins are being counted. To accomplish the packaging of the coins during the counting operation, it is desirable to have the ability to count and package the coins at each location. Although the coins are normally sorted according to their denomination at each location, frequently coins of different denominations or other off-size coins become intermixed with the sorted coins. If the coins are packaged simultaneously during the counting operation, it is necessary to separate intermingled off-size coins before counting and packaging one particular denomination. Since it is desirable to count the coins at each location quickly and accurately, manual sorting out of the off-size coins is inefficient.